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LaserPhys Youth School-Conference

Quantum gates for neutral atoms with three-photon excitation of Rydberg states

Ksenia Kozenko

Published Jan 1, 2025• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We have numerically simulated a two-qubit CZ gate for ultracold neutral atoms based on Rydberg blockade, utilizing three-photon excitation to Rydberg states. The three-photon laser excitation overcomes lack of individual addressability for entangling gates in atomic arrays, which is a key limitation of conventional schemes of quantum information processing with neutral atoms. This is achieved by mitigating sensitivity to laser intensity fluctuations caused by spatial motion of atoms in optical tweezers. Our goal is to investigate the gate performance when three-photon laser excitation is used. We considered Levine-Pichler gate which applies an abrupt phase jump at the center of the control laser pulse. Our simulation accounts for the influence of spontaneous decay of intermediate and Rydberg states and finite Rydberg excitation energies. We obtained the maximum fidelity of the CZ gate around 99.7% for the model based on probability amplitudes and 99.72% for the model based on density matrices. This value exceeds the threshold required for the application of quantum error correction protocols, demonstrating the promise of this gate for experimental realization. This work was supported by BASIS foundation Grant No. № 25-1-1-57-5

DOI
10.15862/83mnnpk25.18

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We have numerically simulated a two-qubit CZ gate for ultracold neutral atoms based on Rydberg blockade, utilizing three-photon excitation to Rydberg states. The three-photon laser excitation overcomes lack of individual addressability for entangling gates in atomic arrays, which is a key limitation of conventional schemes of quantum information processing with neutral atoms. This is achieved by mitigating sensitivity to laser intensity fluctuations caused by spatial motion of atoms in optical tweezers. Our goal is to investigate the gate performance when three-photon laser excitation is used. We considered Levine-Pichler gate which applies an abrupt phase jump at the center of the control laser pulse. Our simulation accounts for the influence of spontaneous decay of intermediate and Rydberg states and finite Rydberg excitation energies. We obtained the maximum fidelity of the CZ gate around 99.7% for the model based on probability amplitudes and 99.72% for the model based on density matrices. This value exceeds the threshold required for the application of quantum error correction protocols, demonstrating the promise of this gate for experimental realization. This work was supported by BASIS foundation Grant No. № 25-1-1-57-5
Arrays of identical neutral atoms trapped in optical tweezers are a promising candidate for use in quantum computing. These platforms are highly scalable to large numbers of qubits and neutral atoms boost several attractive features as long coherence times and the possibility to be entangled via strong dipole-dipole interactions by driving them to highly excited Rydberg states. \nThe Thesis work is developed inside the framework of the QRydDemo project, whose aim in the next few years is to realize a neutral atom quantum processor with several hundred qubits. The smallest building blocks for the quantum computer are one and two-qubit gates: to entangle two atoms in the quantum register, a controlled-phase (CZ) gate will be implemented by shining fine-tuned laser pulses onto them. In this work, after giving a theoretical description of the Hamiltonian of two neutral atoms in the quantum register, a numerical simulation of this system is exploited to reproduce the behavior of the two-qubit CZ gate. Realistic effects are taken into account as finite temperature, imperfect Rydberg blockade, or decay out of the Rydberg state. A protocol with constant pulses is analyzed and its optimal parameters are found through classical optimizers. Then, time-dependent pulses are introduced and the optimal pulses are found through the optimal control algorithm dCRAB in an open-loop optimization. For the experimental realization of the gate, this analysis is of pivotal importance to know in which aspect more effort has to be put to maximize the experimental precision of the operation and thus improving the performance of the whole device \n
A neutral-atom system serves as a promising platform for realizing gate-based quantum computing because of its capability to trap and control several atomic qubits in different geometries and the ability to perform strong, long-range interactions between qubits; however, the two-qubit entangling gate fidelity lags behind competing platforms such as superconducting systems and trapped ions. The aim of our work is to design a fast, robust, high-fidelity controlled-ZZZ (cz) gate, based on the Rydberg-blockade mechanism, for neutral atoms. We propose a gate procedure that relies on simultaneous and transitionless quantum driving of a pair of atoms using broadband lasers. By simulating a system of two interacting cesium atoms, including spontaneous emission from excited levels and parameter fluctuations, we yield a Rydberg-blockade cz gate with fidelity 0.9985 over an operation time of $0.12\phantom{\rule{3.33333pt}{0ex}}\mathrm{\textmu{}s}$. Our gate procedure delivers cz gates that are superior than the state-of-the-art experimental cz gate and the simulated cz gates based on adiabatic driving of atoms. Our results show that our gate procedure carries significant potential for achieving scalable quantum computing using neutral atoms.
We numerically optimized a scheme for a symmetric controlled-Z (CZ) gate based on the Rydberg blockade in neutral atoms, with the aim of increasing its robustness to variations in the Rabi frequency. The scheme exploits analytically defined phase profiles of the laser pulse and proves almost an order of magnitude more robust to Rabi-frequency variations than previously proposed protocols. We designed this amplitude-robust protocol with a smooth pulse shape and optimized it for a finite Rydberg blockade strength, which makes it suitable for experimental implementation in both single-photon and two-photon configurations. We further show that the protocol can be applied to individually addressed Rydberg excitation, accounting for the asymmetry of the Rabi frequencies of two atoms excited by tightly focused laser beams. This allows the effects of residual thermal motion of the trapped atoms to be reduced. Finally, we examined the performance of the protocol for single-photon and two-photon Rydberg excitation schemes at finite blockade strength, and demonstrated its advantages for individual addressing at finite temperatures of the trapped atoms.
We identify time-optimal laser pulses to implement the controlled-Z gate and its three qubit generalization, the C 2 Z gate, for Rydberg atoms in the blockade regime. Pulses are optimized using a combination of numerical and semi-analytical quantum optimal control techniques that result in smooth Ansätze with just a few variational parameters. For the CZ gate, the time-optimal implementation corresponds to a global laser pulse that does not require single site addressability of the atoms, simplifying experimental implementation of the gate. We employ quantum optimal control techniques to mitigate errors arising due to the finite lifetime of Rydberg states and finite blockade strengths, while several other types of errors affecting the gates are directly mitigated by the short gate duration. For the considered error sources, we achieve theoretical gate fidelities compatible with error correction using reasonable experimental parameters for CZ and C 2 Z gates.
With the advent of laser cooling and trapping, neutral atoms have become a foundational source of accuracy for applications in metrology and are showing great potential for their use as qubits in quantum information. In metrology, neutral atoms provide the most accurate references for the measurement of time and acceleration. The unsurpassed stability provided by these systems make neutral atoms an attractive avenue to explore applications in quantum information and computing. However, to fully investigate the field of quantum information, we require a method to generate entangling interactions between neutral-atom qubits. Recent progress in the use of highly-excited Rydberg states for strong dipolar interactions has shown great promise for controlled entanglement using the Rydberg blockade phenomenon. I report the use of singly-trapped cesium atoms as qubits for applications in metrology and quantum information. Each atom provides a physical basis for a single qubit by encoding the required information into the ground-state hyperfine structure of cesium. Through the manipulation of these qubits with microwave and optical frequency sources, we demonstrate the capacity for arbitrary single-qubit control by driving qubit rotations in three orthogonal directions on the Bloch sphere. With this control, we develop an atom interferometer that far surpasses the force sensitivity of other approaches by applying the well-established technique of light-pulsed atom-matterwave interferometry to single atoms. Following this, we focus on two-qubit interactions using highly-excited Rydberg states. Through the development of a unique single-photon approach to Rydberg excitation using an ultraviolet laser at 319 nm, we observe the Rydberg blockade interaction between atoms separated by 6.6(3) microns. Motivated by the observation of Rydberg blockade, we study the application of Rydberg-dressed states for a quantum controlled-phase gate. Using a realistic simulation of the dressed-state dynamics, we calculate a controlled-phase gate fidelity of 94% that is primarily limited by Doppler frequency shifts. Finally, we employ our single-photon excitation laser to measure the Rydberg-dressed interaction, thus demonstrating the viability of this approach.
We designed a scheme for a neutral atom Rydberg blockade CZC_ZCZ​ gate based on the double sequence of adiabatic pulses applied symmetrically to both atoms and using counterdiabatic driving for Rydberg excitation. This provides a substantial reduction in the quantum gate operation time compared to previously proposed double adiabatic schemes, and makes our scheme competitive with modern time-optimal protocols for high-fidelity entangling gates with neutral atoms. Our approach creates a bridge between fully adiabatic and time-optimal gate schemes. The use of adiabatic passage reduces the sensitivity of gate fidelity to variations in laser intensity, while counterdiabatic driving provides short gate times. The intensity and phase profiles of the laser pulse acting on the atoms are described analytically depending only on the gate duration. We demonstrated the applicability of this scheme for single-photon and two-photon schemes of Rydberg excitation in rubidium and cesium atoms, and, for the first time, discussed the implementation of a CZC_ZCZ​ gate using three-photon excitation of rubidium atoms. In contrast to many modern CZC_ZCZ​ gate protocols, our scheme does not generate intrinsic single-qubit phase shifts, although they still appear in two-photon configuration. We also designed a numerically optimized amplitude-robust gate with an analytically defined phase profile of the laser pulse and compared its performance with the counteradiabatic gate scheme.